Gotta admit, I was a bit worried about this, but former city councilor Neitzert nailed it in submitted testimony:.
I am a citizen of District 9 in Sioux Falls. I am also a former City Councilor for the city of Sioux Falls having served from until I was term limited after 2 4-year terms.
This is not a new idea. This has come up in the legislature in the past and has been defeated. I urge you to reject it again. I can speak to it from the perspective I am intimately familiar with, Sioux Falls city government.
We do NOT have a revenue problem. If we have any problem, it simply comes down to priorities. I am a big supporter of quality of life, in general, but core infrastructure must always be the priority. And quality of life can mean a lot of things — in city government we have a lot of it — and we are proud of it.
Parks, libraries, etc. Events centers, convention centers, baseball stadiums, etc. They are highly dependent on several factors — cost, priorities, etc. In Sioux Falls, we generate an enormous amount of sales tax revenue. The first penny pays for operations which is matched by property tax that also contributes to operations.
